Well I will keep this short, sweet, and honest. I am not a picky traveler, eater, or sleeper, so please believe me when reading this. I vacationed from December 14-19.

CHECK IN
When we checked in my guest and I had reserved an ocean view room, not a partial ocean view room, or a room where you may see the ocean if you lean off the balcony at just the right angle, we wanted what we paid for. At the front desk they told us they didn't have an ocean view but would be willing to move us the following day to a room that more suited our needs. Being someone who wants what I paid for that wasn't acceptable. The front desk person who was assisting us, her name is Dora was the sweetest person ever. Completely understanding of our wanting what we paid for. However, she had a supervisor who was needless to say the rudest person I have ever met. Thinking I didn't understand spanish, she had some nerve in telling Dora that she is too nice to the guests. Sinces when is someone too nice to the guests. I put management strait on the phone and told them that if they weren't going to give me the ocean view room I paid for then I would like a letter from them stating they didn't have any available and that their reason was that the travel company (cheap carribean.com) deceived their customers. Finally the head manager finally "found" an ocean front room and we had no problems. Moral of the story, fight to get what you paid for, especially when it comes to your rooms.

Food
Ok guys really, I am not a picky eater, I love food, in fact Mcdonalds is a place that I do enjoy going to. However, the food is bad there, I am being completely honest. It is really bad, the last two days all I ate were cheese sandwiches and french fries because the food was so bad. So be prepared to eat bad food.

Service staff
all the bartenders and waiters and waitress and recreational staff were so sweet. They went completely out of their way to make you feel happy. Its too bad the food was so lousy because I think that had the Chefs been trained and able to cook good food, they would have. So you will really enjoy the service because everyone (for the exception of that one woman at the front desk) goes well out of their way to make the guests happy.

Pools
cold cold cold cold cold cold cold. Only one pool is heated and I suspect its not just heated by the hotel but also by all the guests [-] in it from drinking so much. here is the scoop on why the pools aren't heated. The exhaust pipe for the pool heater faces the beach, when they try and turn it on people complain because it smells like burning gasoline, so they don't' have a choice, if they heat it the guests suffocate, if they don't its too cold (this is at least the case with the ocean front pool) Also they don't have jaccuzzi's there. I don't know why, its unbelievable, so no jaccuzzis and extremely cold pools, that makes for no swimming unless your ready to freeze your [-] off.

Ocean
you can swim in front of the hotel, but your not supposed to. The current is really strong and you are liable to get hurt or drown. You can go to lover's beach via water taxi and its beautiful there, you can definately swim and snorkel there.

Transportation

5 dollars a person if you take a water taxi which is awesome because you get a boat ride to the marina and fast transportation. Downfall of this though is you board from the beach and your liable to get wet and hurt if you are not quick enough to jump on.

$10 each way cab ride. . . I didn't take a cab so I don't know much about this.

Evening entertainment

LAME, REALLY REALLY BAD. NOT GOOD AT ALL.

P.S. you may want to bring some sweaters and pants because it does get cold at night. Now I am from California so for you canadian's it won't be a problem but for you californians its cold so bring some long sleeved sweaters, shirts and pants. I would compare it to Palm springs at night in the winter.

please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I stayed at the Riu Santa Fe from November 10-14 during their "soft opening". The resort is beautiful and yes they just opened (11/9/07). We were not expecting the resort to be running smoothly and had very low expectations considering they just opened the day before. Even though there were some problems we were impressed by the resort. Hopefully they will get the kinks out as quickly as possible.

At the time they offered a free shuttle from the airport. This saved us $30 roundtrip. The only problem with the free shuttle is that they do not bother to tell you that you will be waiting for several couples. If your flight gets in at 5:15 and the next couple does not get until 6:00, guess what you are waiting for that couple. We got in at 5:15 and had to actually wait until 7:00. At that point we were ready to go and were willing to pay for a cab. The rep wasn’t being honest with us. She kept saying we’re leaving in 5 minutes and her story kept changing every 5 minutes. Keep in mind with the shuttle that you will be waiting so either grab a drink at the stand or be prepared to wait.

When we got to the resort we were greeted by Manual who took our bags and also gave us a glass of punch (nice touch). The lobby is open and very beautiful. The front desk clerks need to be more friendly and willing to give good customer service. At the time the resort was only 30% full. We were told when booking that we can request to be upgraded and that it wouldn't be a problem since it wasn’t sold out and also that my friend and I were celebrating joint birthdays. I asked the front desk rep for an upgrade and was told all beach front rooms were completely booked. Then I asked for a room with a pool view. We spent 45 minutes just trying to get booked in our room, mind you know one was at the front desk except for us. Since they couldn't give us a beach front they sent a bottle of champagne (very nice). When we got to the room (Building 3) the light above the door wasn't working which made it difficult to see the key hole. The room was beautiful but they put us facing a field that had an abandon car right in front of our balcony. The front desk stated if we had a problem to call. Well we couldn't call because there wasn't a phone in the room. Poor Manual ran to the front lobby which wasn't very close and all the way back to our room with a phone and the TV remote control (which we didn't realize we were missing). The safe in the room wasn't working either. We later found out that someone had shut all the safes at the resort and that’s why they were not working. They had to be reprogrammed. We were told that they would move us to Building 8 which is close to the beach the next day and has an elevator; I didn't understand why they couldn't move us that night considering it was at 30% occupancy. We were very happy about being moved though. We were told that they would move us the next day by 1:00pm and that we didn't have to worry about anything that they would do it for us and that someone would come to the pool and drop off the key to the new room. By 3:00pm no one had come to the pool. I had to get out of the pool to find out the status of our move (last thing you want to do on vacation considering how far the front lobby is to the beach). When I went to the front desk I was informed that nothing had been done yet. I had to help Manual with our luggage from the first room and take it to the second room. The room was very nice, still no view (room faced the Palace) but hey we are very close to the beach. One thing that I really liked about the room and I have never seen before in my travels, is a bar setup like that. They offered liter bottles of Tequila, Gin, Vodka and Scotch; with bottles of Corona in the mini refrigerator. Since our safe wasn’t working in the new room we had to carry are money with us until they fixed it. I had hid my purse underneath the bed. When we came back to the room my purse was sitting on the chair. Nothing was missing (thank god) but then again I didn’t have anything of value left in it. I’m not sure if housekeeping looked through my purse or not but I felt violated that my purse was moved from underneath the bed to the chair.

Most of the restaurants were not open and every night another restaurant would open. Excellent service by the staff (food and bar). The dinner buffet wasn't bad. My friend would make 4-5 trips to the buffet and she not once complained about the dinner buffet considering she is a "foodie". The breakfast buffet and the lunch buffet had a huge variety of things to eat. I have a very limited diet so it was easy for me to find something to eat and everything was good. We both enjoyed the Japanese restaurant and the Mexican restaurant was amazing! What I didn't understand was that they told us that seating was limited at the Mexican restaurant and that both sittings were completely booked. We decided to go and try anyway and no one stopped us from sitting down, the restaurant one only a forth full. No one asked for the reservation slip which you are required to bring with you. The Mexican restaurant is also buffet style as well as the Japanese restaurant. The Italian restaurant was horrible! It was so bad that we walked out and went to the dinner buffet and ate. Everybody we spoke to all agreed that the Italian restaurant was really bad. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to try the Steak House because we left the day they were opening the restaurant.

We stayed the whole time at the pool near the beach. The water was cold by I liked it. It was extremely hot (85-90) so it felt good to take a dip in the cold water. I'm sure that it will warm up since the resort is now open if not it still feels good. They have two bar pools on each side of the big pool which is also nice. Have Renee make you a cocktail. The bartenders (especially at the pool) were great. They gave really good customer service and seemed to really enjoy their jobs.

Some things that the resort needs to work on, if you are going to sell postcards in your gift shop sell stamps as well. I didn't like that I had to walk to the other resort which is a little trek to get some stamps. Which my friends never got the postcards (sent from the Riu). Have nice toiletries, luckily I brought my own toiletries. Don't forget lotion because they do not offer it as a toiletry. The toiletries you will get are cheap shampoo, conditioner and soap at that’s it. Work on the Italian restaurant, I have had better Italian at a fast food restaurant. Work on front desk customer service, the guy who you book the shuttle reservation isn’t a very pleasant person. He made it really difficult and stressful on booking the shuttle back to the airport. Don’t bother leaving him a voice mail message because he will not answer. Don't print the room number in big red numbers on the keys. I'm very surprised that they do not have key cards. Be honest with your guest instead of telling them what you think they want to hear (guest will be more understanding and patient if you are honest). Have beach lounge chairs like the Palace does. The Sports Bar should have light dimmers. Way too bright in there and that's probably why no one goes in there. Produce a better show. The show's that they have every night are really "cheesy and corny". If you want a good laugh then go watch the show. Don’t forget to Tip! Overall, I really liked the resort but I wouldn’t pay $175 per person per day to stay there. Two things that were mentioned in previous reviews. We had a bellman take our luggage to the room and also pick up our luggage from the room when we left. They have bellman service. Although the resort is large it doesn’t take 10 minutes to get from one end to the other. It was a nice little walk from building 8 to the dining areas (maybe 5 minutes max). Btw, I wouldn’t recommend staying in building 3, there isn’t a view of anything and also you will have to walk up several flights of stairs (no elevators). I hope that this helps!

My husband and I just returned from Cabo Dec. 10-17,2007.We had a good time overall but this hotel is not 5 star I'll be nice and give it.4 stars hotel is gorgeous and the size of a small state my husband claims.Rooms are beautiful and well laid out Big!!!Great mini bar and soaking tub. We never ate at any ala cart resturants and were still pleased. We were able to find food and plenty of it. Beach is fun for viewing only. Hard to walk on, and not good swimming.Lots of good people from everywhere. Hotel does have some bad apples among great employees. Money was stolen from bed that was for maid. Mini bars are stocked by maintenance not housekeepers so hopefully she or he will get the tips and not the beer guys!!!Or if you prefer Beer over a clean room then they''ll be there first to get it.But great bartenders and staff.Tips go along way here.Great to leave they work very hard here.Looking forward to going to another Riu hotel. Signed up Riu membership so I can accumulate points for future stays. Spa was great with lots of services.Gym had great facilities.You will happy with this property prices are right and they will go up soon.

We are regular visitors to Mexico and have stayed at numerous hotels and all-inclusive resorts, including others owned by Riu. This was our worst experience at a Riu facility anywhere in the world. Generally the food was of low quality, often overcooked and casually presented. Buffets predominated, even at the reservation-only restaurants. The rooms were not maintained in an efficient manner. The floors were dirty when we arrived and were never cleaned. We never have had such a dirty floor and this was not expected in a new facility. Service was spotty and varied day by day. We asked to have our ocean-view room changed upon arrival as we only had a water view while standing. This was an experience that took hours with no two staff members giving us the same answer. If feasible, we would have changed hotels after the first day and by the end of day 6 we were more than ready to leave. On the positive side, the ocean is beautiful, pools great and beach wonderful. However, service, food and drink quality and room cleanliness require improvement. If I did not know Riu did better, we would never stay at another of its hotels. For balance, one of our finest experiences at a Mexican all-inclusive was at a Riu on the Mayan Rivieria.